{"id":156,"date":"2017-02-15T21:16:09","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T21:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/clinicians\/?page_id=156"},"modified":"2017-02-15T21:16:09","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T21:16:09","slug":"mycobacterium-chimaera-infections-and-st%d3%a7ckert-3t-heater-coolers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/clinicians\/mycobacterium-chimaera-infections-and-st%d3%a7ckert-3t-heater-coolers\/","title":{"rendered":"Mycobacterium chimaera Infections and St\u04e7ckert 3T Heater-Coolers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">October 14, 2016<\/p>\n<p>Dear Hospital CEO\/CMO:<\/p>\n<p>On October 13, 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/emergency.cdc.gov\/han\/han00397.asp\">Health Advisory<\/a>\u00a0 regarding infections related to contaminated heater-cooler devices used during cardiac surgery.\u00a0 The use of St\u04e7ckert 3T heater-coolers has been associated with <em>Mycobacterium chimaera<\/em> infections in patients who had open-heart surgery.\u00a0 Genetic testing of the organism has indicated that the devices were contaminated at the time of manufacturing.<\/p>\n<p>More detail is available in the <a href=\"https:\/\/emergency.cdc.gov\/han\/han00397.asp\">Health Advisory<\/a> and at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/hai\/outbreaks\/heater-cooler.html\">CDC website<\/a> on heater-cooler units. CDC advises hospitals performing open-chest cardiac surgery to take the following actions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Assess their use of heater-cooler devices and determine if they are using, or have used, the 3T devices and ensure they are following current <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fda.gov\/MedicalDevices\/Safety\/AlertsandNotices\/UCM520191.htm\">FDA recommendations<\/a> to minimize risk.<\/li>\n<li>Notify physicians who evaluate patients who have these surgeries about the risk of infection.<\/li>\n<li>Review microbiology laboratory data for positive cultures for non-tuberculous Mycobacterium from an invasive specimen and cross-check with medical and surgical records to determine if the positive result is in a surgery patient.<\/li>\n<li>Alert all potentially exposed patients about the risk of infection, and institute informed consent to educate patients about the risk of infections. The CDC website on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/hai\/outbreaks\/heater-cooler.html\">heater-cooler units<\/a> contains a toolkit with sample letters for informing physicians and notifying patients and for patients to take to their physicians.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The CDC website also includes additional resources for hospitals, including an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/hai\/pdfs\/outbreaks\/Guide-for-Case-Finding.pdf\">Interim Guide for the Identification of Possible Cases of Nontuberculous Mycobacterium Infections Associated with Exposure to Heater-Cooler Units.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>These infections can occur months or even years after surgery and can present in a variety of ways.\u00a0 Please assist us in assuring that clinicians consider the diagnosis of a mycobacterial infection in a patient with signs of infection and a history of open-chest cardiac surgery.\u00a0 Delayed diagnosis may increase the difficulty of treating these infections.<\/p>\n<p>If your surveillance leads to the identification of a possible mycobacterial infection in a patient who has undergone one of these procedures, please report the case to the Virginia Department of Health\u2019s Healthcare-Associated Infections Team at (804) 864-8141 and to the FDA\u2019s MedWatch Program (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fda.gov\/Safety\/MedWatch\/HowToReport\/DownloadForms\/default.htm\">http:\/\/www.fda.gov\/Safety\/MedWatch\/HowToReport\/DownloadForms\/default.htm<\/a>).\u00a0 Thank you for your attention to this important matter.\u00a0 If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/local-health-districts\/\">local health department<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely,<\/p>\n<p>Marissa J. Levine, MD, MPH, FAAFP<\/p>\n<p>State Health Commissioner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 14, 2016 Dear Hospital CEO\/CMO: On October 13, 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Health Advisory\u00a0 regarding infections related to contaminated heater-cooler devices used during cardiac surgery.\u00a0 The use of St\u04e7ckert 3T heater-coolers has been associated with Mycobacterium chimaera infections in patients who had open-heart surgery.\u00a0 Genetic testing of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mycobacterium chimaera Infections and St\u04e7ckert 3T Heater-Coolers - Clinicians<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/clinicians\/mycobacterium-chimaera-infections-and-st\u04e7ckert-3t-heater-coolers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mycobacterium chimaera Infections and St\u04e7ckert 3T Heater-Coolers - Clinicians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 14, 2016 Dear Hospital CEO\/CMO: On October 13, 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Health Advisory\u00a0 regarding infections related to contaminated heater-cooler devices used during cardiac surgery.\u00a0 The use of St\u04e7ckert 3T heater-coolers has been associated with Mycobacterium chimaera infections in patients who had open-heart surgery.\u00a0 Genetic testing of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/clinicians\/mycobacterium-chimaera-infections-and-st\u04e7ckert-3t-heater-coolers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Clinicians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/134\/2017\/02\/Letterhead.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2355\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"587\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/clinicians\\\/mycobacterium-chimaera-infections-and-st%d3%a7ckert-3t-heater-coolers\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\\\/clinicians\\\/mycobacterium-chimaera-infections-and-st%d3%a7ckert-3t-heater-coolers\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mycobacterium chimaera Infections and St\u04e7ckert 3T Heater-Coolers - 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